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Reviews For: Yaesu MH 59A8J remote mic

Category: Microphones for ham radio

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Review Summary For : Yaesu MH 59A8J remote mic
Reviews: 26MSRP: 82.95
Description:
REMOTE CONTROL DTMF MIC FT-857/FT-897
Product is in production
More Info: http://www.hamradio.com/cgi-bin/uncgi/ase?ITEM=mh+59
# last 180 days Avg. Rating last 180 days Total reviews Avg. overall rating
10263.6
MM0HRL Rating: 2023-03-15
My recommendation. Don't buy it. Or an 857 either! Time Owned: more than 12 months.
Like many others I found the stock mike to give muddy flat dingy audio on sideband/HF. On FM/VHF I got decent reports with it, but was told I seemed quieter than on other rigs. Checks when possible via Hack Green underlined all this - and later - findings.

Got the MH59 and immediately got screaming feedback on 10m in the home set up. The rig locked up in TX needing killed at the power button. My old TS50 Kenwood when plugged into the same set up even with an amplified mike always got flowers sent on the audio. Absolutely no feedback with the older radio. So I dug around for ferrites and festooned the mike cable, patch lead to tuner, also coax from tuner with beads. That kind-of worked, to a degree - but lousy rf laden audio reports followed. By chance I then read that Yaesu in their wisdom (?????) don't fit shielded cables to these mikes - the standard mike included. Perhaps that accounts for the original mic's deaf performance - it's to stop feedback issues?

God knows - well Yaesu-San knows too but he's not saying much about this.

I've found that it doesn't matter hugely what you set things at on this particular radio (897 as well?)because the ALC circuitry steps in to hugely limit the audio output on ssb. What can you do about that? Buy another radio. HiHi

But if you can accept the rather thinnish audio produced - and conquer any RF issues you might discover - you just might find you become capable of tolerating this mike/radio combination. Depending on the examples of that you own...

If you regularly use another rig - ie any Kenwood that I've ever used - you'll get pee'd off with the Yaesu and its mike. However it is a VERY handy thing to have so many radio functions duplicated on the mike keypad. If, that is, you're prepared to learn how to use them all. Most likely you'll find a few you like and won't bother with the others, depending on the pattern of your usage.

Would I buy it again? No Way. Would I buy another FT-857d? *ABSOLUTELY/Definitely* not. But meantime I have them so will continue to use them - a part of the reasoning for this is simple. Right now I can't easily afford to make a change. I'm glad beyond measure that I kept my old TS-50 so I can swap around the radios as I wish.

Perhaps later on I'll budget for a TS590 - but not this week...
***** Updating this in 2023. I did indeed get a TS590s after selling my boat. Zero RFI issues with it. After a lengthy period off ssb HF radio almost entirely while trying some digimodes, am back at my roots again with the same two mobile rigs - but only for in car use either mobile or short "field day" efforts. In short, my example of the ft857d is in my opinion after maybe 7/8 years use a washout for shortcomings present that should never have made it to production. RFI at times despite ferrites everywhere (especially at 28mhz) makes the combination of this mike and rig close to 100% unusable. So much so that if it weren't for its VHF SSB capability which seems okay - I'd have sold the radio. And am binning this mike for the junk that it is. Back to the stock muddy audio original.
ADDITIONAL
Having had a 7900 fm rig's head physically break in use - necessitating a head strip out - I found such thin and skimpy/shoddy - and fragile - plastic moulding inside (that any Chinese junk shop might have made) I'll buy no more products from Yaesu. Their product quality, with some exceptions - as in the on-air behaviour of their FM VHF/UHF rigs - I find to be unacceptable. And build quality NOT what I expect from any Japanese factory. Perhaps they outsourced production at times to China? That might explain the wildly differing reviews in this section. If so, I can guess that maybe my kit exemplifies what can be expected from at least some examples of this rotten microphone and the radio it's meant to work with.
GM4DHJ Rating: 2022-06-16
useless Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Silly amount of functions on the mic...totaly useless for mobile use
W9MT Rating: 2021-12-13
Not really a pronounced upgrade for an FT-817/818 Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I bought it. I'm keeping it as a backup mike to the standard issue MH-31A8. But as others have already said, you cannot do direct frequency input with this mike on those radios. So this missing item negates a lot of the rationale for purchase. You think it's going to be there, but find out after the sale that it's not.

The other negative is what the transmit audio sounds like, compared to the MH-31. It's actually higher pitched, nasal sounding and tinny.

So, why bother???
G4VRR Rating: 2019-03-17
Nonplussed Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I'm not slating this mic. per-se because it's not sold as an upgrade mic. for the FT81x series radios. I have scored it as "needs help" and I think that's fair and objective; read on. However, although it is still supposed to work on an '817, received logic is that there is no point in buying this mic. in preference to the MH-36A8J for the FT817/8nd because the little rig cannot accept direct frequency input. Fair enough (but I would ask "why not?" because such functionality is present at the ACC socket.) Leaving that aside, my experience has been that something as basic as the up / down buttons don't work with this mic. on Yaesu's little wonder. The pins are the same, just no cigar. The mic. up / down buttons work fine on an FT857. My stock MH-31A8J mic's up / down buttons work fine. The MH36-E8J is listed as an accessory for the 817, but given the foregoing I would counsel confirming whether or not the up / down buttons work on that otherwise similar mic. which also shares the same pin out with the stock MH-31A8J. The "Fast" button works but what's the point in that?... It's time Yaesu were called out over this nonsense. As a speech modulator it's fine, but I wouldn't really expect any RF trouble at QRP levels. I'm not sure how the unscreened coiled cable works with the wick turned up on an FT857, but overall this mic. is an anomaly given the supposedly compatible pin connections.
SP9HZX Rating: 2018-07-20
Great audio reports Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I use mine with FT897D.As for me it's very good and useful.
In mobile operation it's a must




73
Andy
www.qsl.net/sp9hzx
AC3CZ Rating: 2018-06-28
Great Radio Control - Great Audio Reports Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
Yaesu MH-59A8J using on Yaesu FT-857D, great radio control features, great audio reports.
KC9ZSY Rating: 2016-06-26
Mic failed three times during field day Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I have an older copy of this mic on my FT-857D, which is in a go box. I recently bought a new 857 and ordered this mic to go with it. During field day, the mic PTT button somehow slid past the flat metal PTT inside the mic, and failed to reset (got stuck under the metal piece) effectively turning my rig into an expensive receiver. I was able to correct it, and then it happened twice more. I'm glad it did not happen during an emergency, but I would expect MUCH better from an $80 Microphone. Pretty disappointed. I am going to request an exchange from my dealer, but THIS mic, bought brand new a month ago, does not meet my requirements for durability and quality. I have not had any trouble with the older one, which makes me question Yaesu's quality control.
W6LDX Rating: 2015-05-18
RFI Time Owned: 0 to 3 months.
I had a terrible problem with RF in my signal that was so bad no voice audio made it through. I was portable with a Buddipole antenna and no ground. When I got home I tried the mic again on my same radio, ft857D (no ground & no tuner)into the Buddipole and it was bad with RFI again. I opened the mic and saw that there was a .001ufd cap across the mic line which is good, so I put a toroid inside by running the mic cable wires and connector through the toroid and put a snap-on toroid (1"x.5")from a TDK device that fit snug on the mic ccable right at the cable entry point on the radio. Made certain the station ground was connected and was running through an LDG YT-100 tuner. No more RFI. A good ground, a good match and two toroids later all is well and good.
KA3RCS Rating: 2014-01-03
Excellent except for RFI susceptibility Time Owned: more than 12 months.
I got this mic about 7 years ago for use with my FT-857 mobile setup. Unlike the stock MH-31A8J with its abysmally muddy dynamic element, this mic has a proper condenser element which generates very good audio. I can't imagine why some users report bad audio with this mic, unless they have inappropriate DSP mic EQ or carrier insertion point adjustments or something.

The remote control capabilities of this mic really shine, allowing almost any function of the FT-857 to be used without touching the control head. That is especially handy now that I have moved the FT-857 to a different vehicle, in which the control head is currently much more difficult to reach comfortably.

Unfortunately, this mic (like its DTMF brother, the MH-36E8J) has a serious RFI susceptibility problem. It took years until I finally realized that this mic was the reason why I had to add copious ferrite cores to every cable in my FT-857 mobile setup to be able to transmit without getting reports of RF in the audio. I've tried adding bypass caps and small ferrite cores inside the mic, and have thus far not managed to cure the RFI. I plan to investigate the issue further and see if I can come up with a fix, as I have a significant investment in three similar mics.

In summary, if this mic is used far away from the antenna, it usually works and sounds great. However, mobile operation (or use with an amplifier, etc.) without RF getting into the transmit audio may require additional RFI mitigation. The MH-67A8J (the stock mic for various Vertex commercial radios as well as the original FT-450) offers similarly great condenser element audio with no RFI problems, though it does not offer DTMF capability. There are similar commercial mics which offer 12-key and 16-key DTMF pads which might be a good match for the FT-857; I need to research them.
VA3GNX Rating: 2012-09-22
Much better than the stock mic Time Owned: 3 to 6 months.
I wanted to be able to control the radio remotely so this was my only choice. At first it was a bit overwhelming but it didn't take long to figure out how to use it. I gave it a 4 because it is a good mic but I had to change it, no other reason. The audio reports were tinny and thin sounding so I modified it by removing the small plastic baffle that sits in front of the element[not the wind baffle it stays in], made a slot out of the 2 extremely tiny voice ports and enlarged the hole in the rubber mount for the element. I found this online by doing search for mh59micmods. It's no desk mic but the reports are better than it was and much better than the 38. I agree yaesu should include this mic with the radio even if they added $50 to the price point it would be well worth it.